Gunmen kill three near University of Maryland campus, Baltimore police say

In this image taken from video, police investigate the scene of a shooting, Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in Baltimore. Baltimore police say four people have been shot, three fatally, near the University of Maryland, Baltimore, campus.

Gunmen killed three people gathered on a corner near a university Tuesday night, police said.

Two gunmen shot a total of four people — one who was in stable condition — a few blocks from the urban campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, according to police.

Baltimore has seen a spike in violence since the April death of Freddie Gray, a young African-American who died while in police custody after being arrested. The incident sparked unrest across Baltimore and intensified a debate over how police treat minorities.

Story continues below advertisement

With the three deaths and a separate fatal stabbing overnight, Baltimore's homicide total so far this year is now 155, according to police. That's a 48 per cent increase compared to the same time last year.

On Tuesday night, the two light-colored vans pulled to the side of the road and one person got out of each van and began firing, campus police said in a statement on the school's website.

Officers responded about 10:30 p.m. to the shooting, in a residential neighbourhood in West Baltimore a few blocks from the campus, Detective Rashawn Strong said in a statement early Wednesday. They found three people with gunshot wounds. One male was pronounced dead at the scene, and another male and a female were taken to a hospital, where they died. The fourth victim sought treatment at a hospital for a gunshot wound to the buttocks.

It was the second shooting in the block in a week, according to campus police.

Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community. This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff. Non-subscribers can read and sort comments but will not be able to engage with them in any way. Click here to subscribe.

Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community. This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff. Non-subscribers can read and sort comments but will not be able to engage with them in any way. Click here to subscribe.

Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community. This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff.

We aim to create a safe and valuable space for discussion and debate. That means:

All comments will be reviewed by one or more moderators before being posted to the site. This should only take a few moments.

Treat others as you wish to be treated

Criticize ideas, not people

Stay on topic

Avoid the use of toxic and offensive language

Flag bad behaviour

Comments that violate our community guidelines will be removed. Commenters who repeatedly violate community guidelines may be suspended, causing them to temporarily lose their ability to engage with comments.

Due to technical reasons, we have temporarily removed commenting from our articles. We hope to have this fixed soon. Thank you for your patience. If you are looking to give feedback on our new site, please send it along to feedback@globeandmail.com. If you want to write a letter to the editor, please forward to letters@globeandmail.com.